Whether you are brand new or well seasoned in your eating disorder recovery, it is normal to experience triggering events and stressors that might increase urges to return to disordered behaviors. While you can't alway control whether or not you are triggered - sometimes it can be as unavoidable as poor sleep or a passing memory - you can develop tools to help you move to choose recovery and kindness in those moments.
We're here to support you and want to help you continue taking care of yourself every single day, even when the eating disorder voice feels louder than ever.
Although it’s true that recovery is hardly ever linear (meaning we don’t experience feeling better in a perfectly straight line, and that setbacks are expected), it’s important to have support and structure in place in order to set you up for eventual long-term success.
Here is a practical three step roadmap for responding to a loud eating disorder voice.
3 Things to do when your ed voice is loud
1. pause
While an urge can be quite intense in the moment, it is helpful to know that it does recede and pass with time, much like an ocean wave. Your goal is to use tools to ride through the peak of discomfort without using an eating disorder behavior.
As you notice the urge or the intrusive thought rising, practice building in a pause or delay. If you can, remove yourself from the triggering environment. This might look like turning off your phone, leaving a conversation or stepping out of the kitchen or bathroom.
Set a timer for the specific amount of time you will delay acting on the urge (5, 30, 60 minutes, etc). If you can, this is a good time to regulate your nervous system with some deep breaths.
2. Get Busy
During the peak intensity of an urge, find other ways to engage your body and brain.
Consider adding some of the activities below into your daily routine to help you maintain a sense of structure and to practice self-care when you feel tempted to engage in unhealthy behaviors:
Distract yourself with games and activities
These mindless activities will help take your focus away from food and body, and instead, on things that will relax and serve you better:
- Puzzles (e.g. fill-ins, crosswords, sudoku, word scrambles)
- Adult coloring books and other mindless art projects
- Read or start a reading challenge. An app called “Goodreads” allows you to track books, review them, and set challenges, while one called “Libby” app allows you to link your library card to get books on a free 14-day loan. Both apps available through Apple and Google Play stores!
- Art projects with yourself or the kids (e.g. DIY home decor, mixed material self-portraits, collages, wall art, and more)
- Make playlists with your favorite songs (e.g. on Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music)
- Listen to podcasts or TED talks and keep a notebook of your favorite episodes!
Dive deeper into your passions and hobbies.
Cultiviating hobbies can help expand your life beyond your eating disorder. These enriching activities encourage you to delve deeper into some of your passions and hobbies:
- Complete continuing education or find online workshops/seminars of interest
- Research a work-related topic you are interested and put together some materials on it
- Join professional practice groups or supervision groups within your career field to continue learning from your peers
- Choose a fascinating topic you love (or your "alternative universe" career you would have had "in another life") and spend time researching that!
3. Recover and Reflect
As the eating disorder voice begins to quit down, reflect through the experience.
Name the triggers that led to the urge. What emotions were present? What tools and activities helped you move through the difficult movement?
Extend compassion to yourself. If you used eating disorder behaviors, remember you are human and you are learning how to take care of yourself. Prioritize self care. What is one kind act you can do for yourself today? What support do you need to continue to choose recovery?
These more writing-involved activities are meant to help you work through your thoughts and emotions directly while reflecting on how you feel along the way:
- Free write in a journal. Natalie Goldberg has a great book on this called Writing Down the Bones).
- Complete a daily 1-page reflection of the "highs" and "lows" of your day
- Create a 2-page sheet where you list your negative feeling or thoughts on one side, and then flip it over and list out all the positive counter-thoughts on the other
- Practice gratitude daily by choosing one person or entity (past or present) and writing a few sentences about how they've helped you
- Complete a daily prompt from a self-help book such as Beautiful You, Body Kindness, Kristen Neff's Self-Compassion Workbook, or Being in Your Body: A Guided Journal for Self-Love and Body Positivity.
how NourishRX can support you
We hope that a few of these activities stood out to you, and can help support you during this time. If you’re feeling stuck or like you need more options, please reach out! We offer one on one nutrition counseling as well as the Eating Disorder Recovery PATH - a membership platform with on demand support and guidance which includes access to a library of downloads, worksheets, and reflection prompts.
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